Formula 2 and Formula 3 have said that in 2027 they plan to use “100% sustainable” fuel with carbon sourced almost entirely via direct air capture (DAC) supplied by Saudi Arabian oil group Aramco, specialized news agency Formula Scout reported.
Aramco, which was already Formula 1’s sustainable fuel provider, started working with F2 and F3 this year, providing them with a “55% sustainable” fuel that could be used in the existing Mechachrome engines.
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Contrary to initial expectations, the two series could not rely solely on DAC, a technology used to pull carbon directly from the atmosphere, in 2023 due to practicial limitations, Formula Scout said, adding the two series will need a total of 300,000 liters (approx. 79,252 gallons) of fuel for the 52 cars racing this year.
According to F2’s technical director Didier Perrin, the two series will seek to scale up their sustainable fuel efforts in three steps over the next five years.
As a first step, the series will look to “replace these 55% of sustainable bio-sourced fuel by 55% of sustainable fuel made with DAC” in 2025, Perrin said in a recent media call. The target is to maximize the use of sustainable fuel with DAC, reaching “almost 100%” in 2027, which would be a worldwide achievement, the director added.
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“It’s a bit easier for us [compared to F1] because as we are a single-make championship, we can impose the type of fuel that we want to all of the teams. So we’ve decided to target in 2027 to go not only [100%] sustainable, but sustainable with carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere,” Perrin was quoted as saying.
The director highlighted that the move could serve as a kind of pilot for the use of a drop-in fuel, or a renewable hydrocarbon biofuel, in the type of engine used in F2 and F3, demonstrating that the technology can be rapidly applied for road cars, too.
